I only took 1 intro course of philosophy, so I don't fancy myself as being a philosopher. I just really loved my professor's explanation of simplicity and occam's razor.

I didn't question YOUR existence, only if your observations were reliable and can be used to prove the existence of an external world. What if we (or really, you) were just "spirits", or like the point in Flatland?

So I wasn't arguing for nihilism.

I just want to make the point that yes, we do make assumptions. We assume that our observations are reliable, and that the external world exists. We make that assumption for a lot of reasons (utility, nothing to be lost, etc).

I mean, you can't lose anything, if there truly is nothing. That's why I don't believe in nihilism.

But I'm arguing that the assumptions need to end there. You can't argue out of utility (life will be so depressing without a god) beyond the very basic in my opinion.

People believe in God because it's comforting to imagine your loved ones existing beyond this life when they die. It's comforting to believe that you too will one day have an after-life. There is no logic in these beliefs, but the most logical explanation for what happens to someone when they die is rather depressing. Who wants to tell their children that when a person dies they ssimply cease to exist?

Fairy tales are much more fun to believe in than a life simply being snuffed out never to be rekindled. So basically human fear and emotion blocks out logic and even science when it comes to religion in general. Who needs fossil records, carbon dating, and astronomy when we have guys dressed it goofy outfits passing pleasant stories along from generation to generation?

Wow the damn forum deleted what I wrote again, I wonder if anyone else is having this problem?

Well I'm just gonna post the rhyme I had and summarize:

Can omniscient God,

who knows the future, find

The omnipotence to

Change his future mind

There are a lot of logical paradoxes and impossibilies with the idea of an all-powerful god.  It really makes no sense to believe in it so I see no reason to.  A good example of how I feel is something Bertrand Russell put forth.  It went something like this : If I were to tell you that there was a very tiny teapot that orbits the earth outside of the moons orbit and that it is so small no telescope could ever detect it would you believe it is there? 

There's no proof of it's existence, there's no way to prove it's existence, so do you believe in it?

Personally, I don't.

very true, also how can good have emotions if he knows everything, people acquire an emotion when they acquire knowledge. 

i think that the idea of god has damaged our society, making facts seem an opinion just because someone doesn't believe in that, even though their is correct proof.

This is probably not gonna end well.

That said. I'm agnostic. Which is not to say that I don't care, but I believe 'believing' in something you can't even have proof for is meaningless and ultimately dumb. It'd be nice if there were god or gods with happy endings after death and all that jazz, but there's no proof. No way to know that this is true. I'm not going to be believe in something just because it makes me feel good. And i'm certainly not going to run around basing my life on a false premise.

On the other hand, to claim I know such and such can't and doesn't exist is equally ridiculous. Unicorns might exist, somewhere in the universe on a planet we will never go, where life evolved similar to ours, but with some unique differences. I'm still not going to claim I _know_ it definitely happened, but my mind doesn't reject the notion.

As a scientist I have to look towards evidence. From a religious viewpoint that evidence is lacking and offers few explanations. I guess it is comforting to believe that god will protect you from evil and the world is in his safe hands and everything. In addition heaven is a nice thing to tell your children when your best friend has just being murdered by a axe weilding maniac. Can people answer the following questions?

Why does an all loving god create hell for the poorest people?

Why does an all powerful god punish people in the forms of natural disasters?

Why does an all knowing god not prevent illness and disease from striking the innocent?

If every creation needs a creator then what created god?

Why is it there a correlation between believing in god and being educated?

More importantly, why does an all knowing God help entertainers win Grammies and Oscars while children in Africa are dying of Aids and starvation? Talk about priorities, AMIRITE?

I know exactly what you mean. i'm sitting here typing this on my computer in a very comfortable environment, yet there is a being that willing allows this to happen, while similtaneously people are suffering from stravation, war, etc or dying. and i mean, its because we are limited in our capacity as humans to comprehend the magnitude of suffering in the world.

i've read a bit of the god delusion, and that tears the existance of god appart. it dosent matter anyway, eventually scientists will find something more tangible for our arguments. its only a matter of time.

It's because without God you can't explain reality.

From what we have observed so far in this physical world we can conclude that stuff don't come into being from nothing, so there must be an explanation outside this reality, forces beyond the observable physical world.

Then there are dozens of other reasons to believe in a God.

If you can't have something come from nothing then where did god come from?  If you say he's always been then that answer nulifys your own argument because then the same could be said for the universe.  If you say another god then the question must be asked again endlessly.